Friday, September 04, 2015

Presidency: Assets declaration confirms Buhari austere lifestyle

The presidency has said that the assets declaration of both president
Muhammadu Buhari and his vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo confirmed the
austere lifestyle of Mr. President.Senior Special Adviser to President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba
Shehu, informed ITRealms that documents submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari
to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), showed that the retired General indeed has
been living an austere and Spartan lifestyle, contrary to what many might
expect of a former Head of State of Nigeria and one who has held a number of
top government positions, such as governor, Minister of petroleum and the head
of the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PTDF).

Shehu also said that the documents submitted to the CCB still undergoing vetting
will soon be made public, and showed that prior to being sworn in on May 29,
President Buhari had less than N30 million to his name. He also had only one
bank account, with the Union Bank. President Buhari had no foreign account, no
factory and no enterprises. He also had no registered company and no oil wells.

The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) who had been a successful
lawyer before his foray into politics declared a bank balance of about N94
million and 900,000 United States Dollars in his bank accounts.

President Buhari declared however that he had shares in Berger Paints, Union
Bank and Skye Bank.

“This is entirely unlike what one might expect from a former head of state
of a country like Nigeria,” a source who was given the document to handle said.

The documents also revealed that President Buhari had a total of five homes,
and two mud houses in Daura. He had two homes in Kaduna, one each in Kano,
Daura and in Abuja. One of the mud houses in Daura was inherited from his late
older sister, another from his late father. He borrowed money from the old
Barclays Bank to build two of his homes.

President Buhari also has two undeveloped plots of land, one in Kano and the
other in Port Harcourt. He is still trying to trace the location of the Port
Harcourt land.

In addition to the homes in Daura, he has farms, an orchard and a ranch. The
total number of hisholdings in the farm include 270 heads of cattle, 25 sheep,
five horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees.

The documents also showed that the retired General uses a number of cars,
two of which he bought from his savings and the others supplied to him by the
federal government in his capacity as former Head of State. The rest were
donated to him by well-wishers after his jeep was damaged in a Boko Haram bomb
attack on his convoy in July 2014.

As revealed by the same forms, highlights of the Vice-President, Professor
Yemi Osinbajo’s asset declaration include his 4-bedroom residence at Victoria
Garden City, Lagos and a 3-bedroom flat at 2 Mosley Road, Ikoyi. The Vice
President also has a 2-bedroom flat at the popular Redemption Camp along
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and a 2-bedroom mortgaged property in Bedford, England.
Aside from these, the Vice President has no other landed properties on the
form.

Apart from his law firm, known as SimmonsCooper, the Vice-President also
declared shareholding in six private companies based in Lagos, including
Octogenerium Ltd., Windsor Grant Ltd., Tarapolsa, Vistorion Ltd., Aviva Ltd.
and MTN Nigeria.

According to details shown on the form, the Vice-President has about ninety
four million naira, nine hundred thousand US dollars and nineteen thousand
pounds in Nigerian Banks with the foreign currencies kept in local domiciliary
accounts. His personal vehicles are one Infinity 4-Wheel Drive SUV, one
Mercedes Benz and a Prado Jeep.

“As soon as the CCB is through with the process, the documents will be
released to the Nigerian public and people can see for themselves,” the source
said.